


The Littlest Witch

by turduckenail



Category: The Little Mermaid (1989)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ariel's a witch in this one, Ariel's moral compass is a roulette wheel, Badass Ariel, Emotional Manipulation, F/M, Flotsam & Jetsam are the only healthy relationship in this fic, Gen, Mermaid Voice Magic Mind Control, Possessive Ariel, Rating May Change, Selling your soul to the devil for fun and profit, Sorry these tags are a mess I'm adding and deleting them as I write, Tags May Change, flotsam and jetsam are weird and creepy but still somehow decent babysitters, sea witch au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2020-03-29 17:04:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19024213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/turduckenail/pseuds/turduckenail
Summary: The one where Ariel learned how to grant her own wish.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Look it's late o' clock I just finished writing this and I have not beta'd it at all or even like checked it for spelling errors. I'll fix it in the morning but in the meantime please enjoy. This was inspired by some art on twitter go check it out: https://twitter.com/Aleikats/status/1132078598599299072
> 
> Anyway I'll see y'all in the morning when I come back to actually add decent notes to this and maybe another chapter?? who knows, I sure don't.
> 
> Edit: Quickly fixed some grammar. 
> 
> Okay so I don't actually have any idea where I'm heading with this story but I'm having tons of fun with it so far. Leave a comment if you have any suggestions for things you'd like to see in this fic, or just if you wanna yell about this au with me. I've never actually touched this fandom before now so I have no clue if this has been done before but whatever, we're all just here to have fun. :)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ariel goes exploring

The water this far down was dark. Not much sunlight made it this far, and the light that did was dim, pale against the seafloor, bouncing off rocks and bits of sunken ships and other strange, old things half eaten away by rust and rot and erosion.

Any life in this place was harsh, used to fighting to eke out an existence among the bones of dead things. It attracted the kinds of creatures that were vicious and territorial. The kind with lots of teeth, or the kind that you couldn’t see coming until it was too late. Sharks could often be seen circling nearby, and one had to be careful passing through a dark corner that might be hiding an eel.

But, sometimes, the landscape would be interrupted by something somewhat less intimidating.

This something, in particular, came here often. Coloured in eye-catching green and red, with skin light and pink enough to make a sharp contrast with the surrounding rocks and the bands of gold across her skin and scales. This something had no threatening teeth or claws, no sharp predator eyes or the slow glide of something that knew how to strike at the throat and gills. This something curled through the water without regard for her surroundings, unafraid of the shadows. Tiny shapes in the craggy rocks flickered away as she passed by.

She slipped through a porthole in the side of one of the wrecks, flitting through half-collapsed hallways with the ease of someone who had done this quite a lot. Her eyes - expressive and bright, not dark and beady like most things around here - roamed around the place as she moved through. Looking for something, but not quite sure it was here. Or maybe she wasn’t sure what she was looking for yet. Either way.

Her eye caught on a glint of light on metal. That was always promising. Rare enough to find anything here that hadn’t already been eaten by rust. She picked it up, turning it over in her hands as she floated in lazy circles, driven by absent flicks of her tailfin.

It was _brilliant._ It was _fascinating._ It was _splendrous._ It was-

She had no clue what it was.

Irrelevant, it was hers now. She grinned, twisting to face the shadows curling around her shoulders. “What do you think it is?”

The shadows hummed thoughtfully. “A human thing, no doubt,” said one.

“It reminds me of a trident,” said the other. “A bit small, though.”

“Yes, too small for a trident,” the first echoed in its strange hissing voice.

“Perhaps it’s a toy,” said the second.

She hummed. “Could be. Well, either way, it’s going in my collection.” She happily tucked it into the bag slung over her shoulder, then gleefully looped up and around her companions, playfully tugging at their fins as they followed her movements. “And you said I’d already gotten everything, sillies.”

They chuckled, dark and fond. “You spend enough time exploring here, we thought for sure there couldn’t be anything you’d missed.”

“After all, you’re so very good at finding such tricky hidden things.”

She rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “Yes, yes, I get it. I haven’t forgotten what I _actually_ came here for, ya know.”

“Of course not, child.”

“Of course not.”

She glared at them for a moment, and they grinned back.

“Humph, _fine,_ I’ll stop getting distracted.”

“Oh child,” they laughed, “we’d never ask so much of you.”

She stuck her tongue out at them and almost started to turn back the direction she’d come when the bank of windows on the far wall shattered.

Her eyes lit up in golden light, liquid in its intensity, spilling down to her fingertips, and she hurled the magic at the shark as it rushed her. It splashed against its hide, catching it in a net of molten yellow and halting it in its tracks. She smiled in smug satisfaction and flitted over to the struggling beast.

It snapped at her when her fingers got too close, but another dash of magic jammed its jaw open, and a third pried three of its teeth loose. The girl tucked them in her bag along with her tiny not-trident and gave the shark a consoling pat on the nose before she turned away, leaving it to find it’s own way out of her net.

“See? Three fresh shark teeth, no problem. That’s like, half my list, right there.”

The eels continued to grin. It was rare that they weren’t. “We never doubted you, child.”

She smiled again, this time genuinely pleased. She knew they hadn’t, they never did, but it was nice to have the confirmation. She worked hard, after all, she liked having those efforts rewarded once in a while.

“Right, all that’s left are two vials of barnacle larva and a heart of anemone, then we can head home.”

“Lead the way, child.”

“Yes, we will follow you.”

Ariel nodded and twisted away into the shadows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to leave a comment if you enjoyed, they keep me going.
> 
> Edit Aug 11, 2019: Quick change for continuity. No need to reread this chapter to understand the story.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ariel makes a new friend and sings karaoke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for all your kudos and comments!!! They honestly mean so much to me, I'm so glad all of you are enjoying this as much as I am!
> 
> A bit more to establish the world and cause I couldn't stop playing around with the worldbuilding lol. The plot picks up in the next chapter probably though so don't worry ;)

The heart of anemone was the hardest to get. Not many lived this far out from the reefs, and she didn’t plan on getting spotted by one of Triton’s subjects by wandering that far into warm waters. She did eventually find one poking out from a craggy cliff face not far from the sunken ship. It came loose with a sharp tug and joined Ariel’s other finds in her bag. “That’s the last of them!”

“Excellent work,” said Flotsam.

“Yes, Ursula will be pleased.”

“I hope so. It’s impossible to find good ingredients this far down.”

Flotsam and Jetsam both grinned, and she was pretty sure it was meant to be encouraging. Hard to tell with all the teeth really. “That’s why Ursula sends _you,_ child. You’ve quite a knack for finding the things that don’t want to be found.”

Ariel opened her mouth to say something, but a flash of colour at the edge of her vision had her pressing herself as tight as she could into a gap between two rocks. Flotsam and Jetsam curled close to her, hiding her brighter colours with their murky grey-greens.

Though, perhaps the strange mermaid swimming by wouldn’t have noticed her anyway.

Ariel was always caught off guard by just how… bright… the reef merpeople were. Ursula said it had something to do with living in such a colourful place, and given enough time any mer would shift their colours to match their surroundings. Those bright colours were meant to live with the coral and tropical fish of warm waters.

Ariel, usually the most colourful creature at home, always felt muted when she caught a glance of another mer.

But no, she had to remind herself. She was already bright enough as it was, already enough to grab the attention of most predators and mark her as easy prey. It was a wonder that the other mermaid had even made it out this far without getting snapped up by a roaming predator.

Well, she could fix that.

A murmured spell rippled over her skin, turning it slightly translucent and the same dull colours as the rocks that hid her. Not a perfect disguise, but it would be enough to keep her from being spotted if she was careful. Flotsam and Jetsam picked up on her plan without her having to say anything and moved out of her way, finding a better place to stay out of sight.

She pulled herself from her hiding place and around the outcropping, careful not to make any large movements that would give her away. She drifted, silent, letting the edge of a current drag her to a better hiding place.

Ah, there.

She drew herself to a gentle stop against another rock formation, keeping it between her and the other girl. Ariel allowed herself a moment to admire the amethyst shine of her scales as she waited for the right moment.

The poor thing looked very lost. Obviously she was, if she was swimming alone this far from civilization. Ariel could see the whites of her eyes from here. The startled-wide look of something that knew it was being hunted but didn’t know where the danger was. She kept startling, jumping at shadows and shying away from any imagined movement.

Something gentle, then. One about safety, home, protection. Ariel absently tapped out the beginnings of a rhythm against the stone. No problem.

The first few notes were quiet, barely sounds at all, but still made the stranger freeze in place.

She hummed again, just a bit louder, feeling the magic seep closer to her target.

_This way. It’s alright. This way is safe._

A few more bars, a gentle up-and-down melody, something close to a lullaby, or the cadence of a children’s story being told for the dozenth time. Her audience ate it up eagerly. She could feel the magic starting to take hold.

_Warm sand. Bright sun. A hidden place that no predator can reach. This way is safe. It’s alright._

The magic latched onto the mermaid’s fear. It dug its hooks in deep, planting a seed of artificial hope in her mind, soft and gentle, while driving her panic to a fever pitch. A huge roaring monster in her head, under her skin, making her heart pound harder and harder, she wasn’t _safe_ here it wasn’t _safe, danger danger danger—_

Ariel saw the moment her will broke and the magic took control of her mind. She suddenly darted toward Ariel’s hiding spot with a desperate look of relief on her face, and Ariel smiled.

She glided from outcropping to outcropping, humming as she went. _This way. This way is safe._ The stranger followed her voice, too dazed to pick out the shape of the singer, or too far gone to the magic to care. Eventually the cliffs and shipwrecks gave way to stony ravines, which gave way to great canyons that led down into yet darker waters. _This way. Not far now._

Another canyon opened up, islands of black stone spewing heat and magma, cooling into bulbous shapes that rose high above their heads.

Eventually the canyon opened up, the floor dropping off into oblivion, into water too dark to see where the end of the drop was, and the vast open ocean stretched out before them. Ursula sometimes called it the edge of the world. Ariel was inclined to believe it.

But they weren’t going that far today. She hooked a sharp right around the final cliff, still humming as she went, and took in the familiar sight of the misshapen volcanic cliffs supporting the carcass of a leviathan, bones rendered twisted and sick from magic.

Ariel hummed a few final bars — _There. That is safety. There is safety inside. She’ll be able to help. —_ and ducked out of sight to let the mermaid find her way inside.

Flotsam and Jetsam caught up to her as she dropped her camouflage. Their mismatched eyes were just losing their glow. Ursula had seen everything. “Excellent catch, child.”

“Thanks. Hopefully a new contract will put Ursula in a good mood,” she said. “And who knows, maybe this one will even manage to meet the conditions.”

The eels laughed together. “Ah, child. You do tell the best jokes.”

It hadn’t been a joke, but Ariel smiled anyway. “Well, anyway,” she cleared her throat. Singing for so long always made it close up a bit. “We should probably get this stuff inside. Come on.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OwO who's this? 
> 
> No seriously who's this I have no idea why she's here


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ariel goes to a party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No beta's, we die like men.
> 
> That's a lie my friend B has been helping me with this a lot, especially this chapter. This would be a disaster without you!!
> 
> Anyway sorry for the late chapter, I was sick for a while and then out of town for a week so I didn't get much writing done the last few weeks. Also this chapter wound up being just over 4k, as opposed to the last chapter which barely broke 1k so that's.. probably why it took so long to post rip I'm not used to writing long things _(:3 」∠)_ 
> 
> Thank you all so so so much for the warm reception of the last couple chapters!!!! Your encouragement is really what makes me want to keep writing this, you're all amazing and I hope you're enjoying this ride as much as I am so far!
> 
> This is the chapter where I finally figured out half of a plot but also heads up I still have no clue what I'm doing and I'm mostly making it up as I go so this might be a bit of a Mess plot-wise till my plans settle out. Hope you have fun reading it anyway!! The next chapter will hopefully go up soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that! (ง ˙o˙)ว

Ursula’s lair, and the skeletal beast that housed it, sat at the top of a volcano that now lay mostly dormant. Dormant enough to live on top of at least. It was surrounded on three sides by taller cliffs, jagged and gouged, and bordered on one side by a sharp drop into a deep abyss. Giant shapes drifted through the fathoms from time to time, terrifying in their enormity, but they always seemed content to keep their distance, so Ariel didn’t usually pay them any mind.

Between the volcano and the cliffs, deep down where their bases met, where the giants were a bit closer and the wild fish started to look strange, there were a series of caves. Most of them were small, only a bit deeper than Ariel could reach with her arm, with openings too narrow to fit her shoulder through. Some were big enough for her to fit inside, and she’d spent a lot of time exploring them when she was a guppy. She never felt safer than when she was tucked away in some tiny, out of the way crag deep inside the cliffs. No one could find her there but the strange glowing fish that sometimes wandered by. If she held still enough, their blind eyes would pass over her completely. Like she wasn’t there at all.

At some point she’d figured out how to apply magic to that feeling, to turn herself almost invisible whenever she wanted. Just in time for her to grow out of her favourite hiding places forever.

There was one cave she still returned to though, now that she was done growing. She returned there now, feeling along the cliff face as she heard the telltale sounds of Ursula’s spellcasting echo above her head. It was just on the edge of too-dark-to-see down here, so she guided herself along by touch and the faint glow of Flotsam and Jetsam’s eyes. That was all she needed, really. She’d been here often enough that it didn’t matter that she had to look for it blind, and soon enough her fingers caught on what she was looking for.

The entrance to this cave wasn’t quite as tall as she was long, and narrow enough that she could just barely fit her hips through. The inside of the tunnel was rough with sharp obsidian. She’d cut herself on it more than once, but she could get through easily enough if she was careful and kept her movements tightly controlled.

The tunnel twisted, left and down and up and around, widening as it went, till eventually it opened up into a proper cavern where she could stretch her fins out.

The floor was the same volcanic rock as the rest of the cave, smooth and slightly concave. In the center was a depression that she’d settled a whalebone cauldron over. Ariel was pretty sure it used to be a geyser or a particularly small volcano. Now it had just enough heat to keep her cauldron bubbling and turn the ambient water warm.

The walls stretched up and up in a great arch, broken by large clusters of obsidian that refracted the faint light that filtered in from a small opening at the peak of the cavern and the glow of the bioluminescent flowers that Ariel had carefully planted in the places where she could squeeze a bit of dirt between rocks. The mirror effect from the obsidian cast the entire cave in a faint blue-violet light, punctuated at its center by the glow of her cauldron.

She’d carved the walls out over the years, creating shelves and alcoves and convenient places to hang things. And every nook and cranny was full to overflowing.

This was her collection. A lifetime of scavenging and picking through old shipwrecks and occasionally stumbling upon something worthwhile. A trove of knick-knacks and bric-a-brac and anything she could get her hands on. If it came from the surface, odds are she had at least one of them lying around here somewhere.

She had tall waterlogged images of things the humans had seen fit to immortalize in… whatever they used to make the pictures. (Ink maybe? How did they get all the different colours?) There were boxes full of smaller trinkets, organized by type as best she could figure. Strange objects of such beautiful shapes, such intricate decoration, but with purposes she couldn’t begin to decipher.

There was a stack of soft stuff laid out in an alcove about halfway up the back wall. The soft stuff was fine hair on one side, firm and smooth on the other. Maybe some kind of hide, though she couldn’t guess what kind of animal it was from. Regardless, it was the softest thing she’d ever felt, and the nest of them she’d built up was her favourite place to sleep.

The sudden urge to burrow down among them and hide was overwhelming.

She dropped her bag with no regard for where it fell, flung herself into her nest and flicked one of the pelts over her head. It took some doing to get her tail to fit, but she eventually managed to arrange herself so that she was completely wrapped in comforting weight and darkness.

If she pressed her head down just right, she could hear the steady pounding of her heart. The roar of blood in her head. The ever-present sound of the ocean felt enormous in the tiny space, and Ariel let herself be lost in it. If she listened hard enough, she could pretend she couldn’t hear her thoughts over it.

That was the thing about finding other mer wandering around. Hooking her magic into their minds and luring them home was second nature at this point, and Ursula expected it of her. It was how she got most of her contracts these days. Ariel didn’t mind, really she didn’t. She even relished the chance to use her magic, to see how quickly she could wrap her influence around the mind of a stranger and draw them away into parts unknown without a struggle. Sometimes they were even eager, and Ariel would gleefully race them back to Ursula’s lair, humming a cheerful tune all the way.

But then they would go to Ursula, and she would use her own magic to snare them in a contract. The mer Ariel brought to her would invariably fail to meet the conditions of success, Ursula would have something new to add to her garden, and Ariel would be alone again.

Sometimes, once in a blue moon, Ursula would be away when a mer came seeking a magical solution to all their problems. In those cases, it would be up to Ariel to make the contract, set the terms, and collect Ursula’s payment when they failed to meet them. Ariel counted the days between those times. It was the only time she got to talk to anyone who wasn’t Flotsam, Jetsam or Ursula. If she was feeling particularly lonely — and particularly reckless in her ability to keep a secret from Ursula — she would give them what they asked for in exchange for conversation. She’d draw stories of their homes and childhoods from them while she worked on a potion to heal whatever ailed them. Then, when she felt that she’d had enough of a stranger’s voice, she would give them the potion and send them on their way. (Only she never felt that she’d had enough of their voices. She would have happily kept them there for hours just to relish in the company of someone new.)

Most of the time the solitude didn’t bother her. She was used to it, and she even sought it out sometimes. But other times, like today, the isolation would creep up on her and crawl under her skin until she could feel nothing but exactly how alone she was.

Wrapping herself in stolen skins didn’t really do much, but it was just a bit better than nothing.

There was a tug on the skin. “Child?”

Ariel curled tighter. No. Absolutely not dealing with this right now.

“Come out, child. Tell us what’s wrong.” 

“Nothing. I’m fine.” But her voice sounded fragile, even to her own ears.

Jetsam hummed thoughtfully. Or maybe it was Flotsam. Hard to say when she couldn’t see them. “Is it about the girl you caught today?”

“... It’s just…” she sighed, pulling the skin tighter around her. “No. It’s nothing.”

It was quiet for a moment. Then there was a tug and a nudge at the skin, and Flotsam wormed his way underneath, followed close by his brother. They wrapped themselves around Ariel, both steady weights against her sides. They used to do this when she was little, wrapping round and around until she was entirely concealed. Now she was too big for it to have the same effect, but she appreciated the — the sentiment, she supposed, even if they weren’t usually prone to such trivial emotions as sentiment.

It had been a while since the last time they’d done this, actually. Ariel hadn’t realized she missed it. The contact was nice. Grounding. And it did make her feel better. Just a bit.

She let the moment stretch, just soaking in the physical contact for a bit, letting it anchor her as she gathered herself. The eels seemed content to sit in silence with her for a moment. “I’m just… lonely, I guess.”

Flotsam and Jetsam startled before she had a chance to say anything else and she tensed with them, instantly on alert.

At first she didn’t know what had startled them, but then she felt a disturbance. It was there and gone in a moment, too faint to tell if it was a sound or a pressure or a trick of the water, but Flotsam and Jetsam were still on edge, so she knew it must have happened.

Another moment of stillness, then another disturbance. Ariel crept out from under the covers, ears straining to try and catch it again. She almost thought she’d missed it, whatever it was, when it happened again. This time she could see the flash that accompanied it. A slight change in the intensity of the ambient light and colours. She darted her eyes around her cave. It hadn’t been her cauldron, or something from the entrance. It wasn’t a stray creature refracting bioluminescence off the walls. So then what…?

She flipped over to face the ceiling and — oh. That’s where it was coming from.

Through the gap in the ceiling she could see a shadow floating high above, near the surface. Or, no, those distortions of light looked like ripples? Waves caused by movement? It wasn’t a breaching whale, the shape was all wrong. But bursting around it, above the surface, were bright flashes of coloured light. Blue and orange and green. Now that she was listening for it, she could just catch a faint sound like thunder accompanying every flash.

She was distantly aware of Flotsam and Jetsam joining her as she looked up at the… thing. “What do you suppose…?”

Rather than finish her own question she propelled herself upwards with a few broad strokes of her tail, slipping through the hole in the ceiling as she went. The thing was _enormous_ , a fact that became very apparent the closer she got. Easily the length of a humpback whale, but much broader. It didn’t cut through the waves at the surface so much as come at them with so much size and unwavering blunt force that they had no choice but to break around it. But for all its power, it wasn’t moving very fast, and she was easily able to catch up to it and keep pace alongside it.

It took a beat for the shape of it to register as something familiar, but when it did the recognition hit her like a wave.

She’d never seen one that wasn’t lying in shattered pieces at the bottom of the ocean before, but this ship floated tall and proud over the waves, resplendent in its full glory. The tall pole that she’d usually seen crooked and broken stretched in a straight line up and up and _up_ towards the sky, flanked by two others of similar sizes. Each pole held aloft two or three great white skins, with more stretched from a beam at the front of the ship to the pole closest to the front. They billowed in the wind, grand and vast, propelling the ship forwards from the force of the wind against them.

 _So that’s what those are for,_ she thought absently, already shifting her attention to the thousand other wonderful things that were clamouring for her attention; the shine of metal that hadn’t had a chance to rust yet, the tidy coils of rope as thick as her arm used to keep the white skins in place, the graceful carved figure at the front of the ship that looked like it might have been a mermaid and made a tiny part of her brain laugh hysterically.

There was just—there was so much! There was so much and it was making her head spin from how wonderful it was to see it all up close and in stunning, pristine condition.

Another round of bright lights — so bright when she was up close! — went off with a loud round of explosions, loud enough to startle her. Then a high whistle as something flew up into the sky, then another _bang_ as it erupted in a bright, bright scatter of gold light, crackling and fading as it went. Then a burst of green, red, blue, more gold.

A particularly showy explosion was met with the sound of loud cheers from above, bringing Ariel out of her reverie. That’s right, where there was a human ship, there were bound to be humans. And where there were humans…

Well, she didn’t actually know if there was anything particularly interesting that came with the presence of humans. (Besides the obvious of course, humans were inherently fascinating creatures.) But what a perfect chance to find out!

The side of the ship had plenty of places for her to dig her fingers in, so it wound up being pretty easy to haul herself up. (Except for one time near the top where she lost her grip and her resulting scrabbling to get on top of the ledge she was aiming for was… not as graceful as she would have liked.) She’d found a good spot to sit and observe from here. There was a ledge — maybe decorative, maybe not — just below a gap in the side of the short wall all around the flat top of the ship. From here, she was mostly hidden in the shadows, but she could easily look out and watch the partying humans.

And what a party it was. They were all cheering and stomping their feet to the tune of strange instruments, clapping and swinging each other around in dances that were so regular in their timing that they seemed designed to be part of the percussion themselves.

A mass of fur bounded past, making a series of short, loud sounds that seemed to have a cheerful lilt to them. The creature certainly seemed to be enjoying itself. It wove in and around the stomping feet of the dancers, taking part in the revelry with all the enthusiasm and absolutely none of the rhythm or coordination. It barrelled into the legs of one of the dancers, knocking them both to the floor while the onlookers laughed uproariously. Ariel grinned softly and breathed a quiet ‘huh’.

The creature shook itself and bounded away again, appearing completely unaffected by the incident. Ariel tracked it’s movements across the ship, utterly transfixed. What _was_ that thing? A companion animal? The humans certainly seemed happy enough to have it around, and she guessed it wouldn’t have been on the ship if it wasn’t wanted there. It looked like they let it run amok though, was it really tame? It certainly looked comfortable enough around humans to be one of theirs, but at the same time, it didn’t seem to have any desire to answer to any of the partygoers—

A whistle, “Here, Max!”

— except for that one.

The creature — Max? — instantly changed course and bounded happily over to hop happy circles around one of the humans. This one had dark hair and bright blue eyes and played a lively melody on an instrument Ariel had never seen before while Max bounced joyful circles around him. Ariel was sure she’d never seen anyone ever smile like he was in that moment.

He looked happy.

Not the kind of happy Ursula was sometimes when she’d collected on the results of a good deal and had something new to add to her garden, or the kind of happy Flotsam and Jetsam were when they’d snared some particularly tasty prey. This kind of happy seemed… lighter. More open. There was no hunger in the eyes of this boy, no pride at having set a trap well and reaping the rewards from it. It was just happiness wrought from a moment of playfulness with his pet. Simple, uncomplicated, and without cause.

Humans really were such curious things.

Ariel found herself caught up in the sight of him. She watched them dance together, uncoordinated as it was, both seeming without a care in the world. After a moment or so the boy pocketed his instrument and dropped to his knees. His creature met him halfway, hooking its paws over his shoulders and slobbering enthusiastically all over his face.

“Good boy, Max,” laughed the human, though Ariel didn’t know why. She hadn’t seen the creature do anything particularly worthy of praise.

She cocked her head. Curious indeed.

A sound rang through the air, sharp and clear, drawing the attention of everyone on the ship. “Attention, everyone! Attention!” Another human — tall and frail-looking and with much fancier clothes than the others — stood near a set of doors set into a wall at the back of the ship. Two particularly brawny humans were struggling a bit to get a large, cloth-covered object through the doors and out into the open.

“It is my honour and privilege to present to His Majesty, King Eric, this very expensive, very fragile birthday present.”

The boy — Eric — stood and smiled at the frail man. “Grimsby, you shouldn’t have.”

Grimsby nodded with an air of long-suffering annoyance that seemed a bit too dramatic to be entirely sincere. “I know. It was a beast to get on board without damaging it. Heaven knows what the damp will do to it.” He cleared his throat and came to stand beside Eric as the brawny humans put down the giant present. “But, I digress. Happy birthday, Eric.”

One of the brawny humans pulled off the cloth with a flourish. There was a smattering of polite applause from the crowd, though Eric seemed… slightly less than impressed.

Ariel thought it was a beautiful present. It was like one of the colourful images she was sometimes lucky enough to scrounge up from shipwrecks. This one was bordered by a thick, ornate golden frame, and was nearly as tall as Eric was. Whoever had made the image had painted a portrait of a stern man with sleek black hair and stern sea-blue eyes and broad shoulders draped with speckled hair-like material and shining fabric. It took Ariel a moment to realize that the harsh figure was supposed to be Eric. She decided she liked the real Eric better.

“Wow, Grim. It’s uh,” Eric rubbed the back of his neck absently, “It’s… definitely something.”

Grimsby rolled his eyes in what Ariel thought might be good-natured exasperation. “Yes, I’m well aware of your opinion of having yourself artistically rendered. However, it _is_ tradition for the King to have a portrait of himself to hang next to those of his predecessors. Seeing as you weren’t taking the initiative, I took the liberty of having one commissioned myself.” Then he leaned in closer to speak low in Eric’s ear, just loud enough for Ariel to hear. “The blacksmith is putting the finishing touches on a sword that I think will be more to your liking. It will be awaiting you upon our return to shore.”

He smiled broadly and clapped Grimsby on the shoulder. “You’re the best, Grim.”

The crowd began to disperse and go back to their party. Grimsby returned the smile. “Naturally. Of course, I keep hoping these gifts will be wedding presents.”

Eric’s smile fell and he rolled his eyes. “Come on, Grim, we’ve had this conversation before. When I find the right girl I’ll know, and I’m not going to settle for any of the frou-frou princesses you keep introducing me to.”

“Your Majesty, you’ve met every princess, duchess, baroness and lady from here to Denmark and then a few besides. At this rate there will never _be_ a ‘right girl’. You’re going to have to settle for someone eventually.”

“Or,” he drew out the word rather more than he needed to, “I could adopt some kid, raise _him_ as my heir, and not have to worry about spending the rest of my life with a woman I can’t stand to be around.”

Grimsby suddenly looked very tired. “You know the laws of succession don’t allow for adopted—”

“So I’ll change the laws!” he barked, “I’m king now, I can do that.”

“Not easily, and certainly not without your uncles putting up a fight. You know they’re both vying for the throne in the event of your death, I don’t think either of them would take kindly to being usurped by some random urchin off the street—”

Eric whirled around, eyes flashing, and kicked a box hard enough to break it open and send its contents flying. “ _Damn_ my uncles!” A dozen pairs of startled eyes whirled to face him. Ariel tensed in her hiding place.

“Oh dear, I—” Grimsby stuttered to himself, vaguely alarmed, then turned to wave off the others. “Nothing to see here, gentlemen. Please, go back to your revelries. Mister van Beek, I think we would like some more music. Something lively, if you please.”

One of the humans, presumably van Beek, hesitantly started to play again. The others slowly gave up staring at Eric to pretend that his outburst had never happened, though his shoulders were still hunched and heaving with barely contained emotion.

Grimsby laid a gentle hand on Eric’s shoulder, and all the fight seemed to go out of him. His shoulders slumped, and he drew a hand down his face. “… Sorry.”

“That’s quite alright, Eric.”

Eric sighed, long and weary. “The stress is getting to me, I think. I never used to have a temper.”

Grimsby hummed understanding. “I think expecting your family to stage a coup any day now would be enough to stress anyone. And I am sorry to say it, really I am, but I think marrying and securing your bloodline would go a long way towards preventing such an outcome. I know you’re loathe to choose any of the candidates I’ve found for you, but please consider it. If only for the sake of preventing your uncles from doing something foolish.”

Ariel thought Eric looked older, then. She corrected herself for thinking of him as a boy at first. He looked too tired to be just a boy.

“Alright. I’ll think about it.”

Grimsby squeezed his shoulder gently. “That’s all I ask. And, who knows?” His voice lost it’s heaviness and took on a bit of cheerfulness, though it seemed forced. “Maybe the girl of your dreams will suddenly wash up on the beach, ready for you to sweep her off her feet.”

Eric laughed a bit. “Yeah, wouldn’t that be something. While we’re at it, maybe lightning will strike both my uncles and I won’t have to worry about it at all.”

They exchanged a wry glance in the moment before a roll of thunder sounded.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ariel watches some fireworks

That roll of thunder was their only warning before the storm hit in full force and a wall of wind rammed like a physical thing against the side of the ship. The sea, calm just minutes ago, sent up great breakers that pounded the hull and made the wood shudder ominously.

Ariel let her magic ripple down her arms to her fingertips, hardening her nails into sharp claws that she dug into the wood to keep from being tossed into the water when the next gale hit. Another followed quickly in its wake. Ariel scrabbled frantically and dug her claws deep just as she was about to lose her perch.

The humans were rushing around the deck, fastening down everything that wasn’t already secure. They threw their whole body weight into wrangling the hides that were flapping frantically in the wind. The ship rocked and plunged down the side of a steep wave. It hit another wave side-on and water washed over the rails, sweeping up cargo and crew alike. Ariel was knocked loose from the force of it and hit the water with enough force to knock the breath out of her. The current dragged her under the ship and up the other side. She just narrowly missed scraping against the rough underbelly of it. She propelled herself to a safe distance, where she wouldn’t get hit by the ship as it was tossed about by the storm, and dared to surface again just in time to see a bolt of lightning strike the ship at its center.

Ariel had never actually seen fire before, outside of pictures.

She’d seen magma, of course. She lived among volcanos in varying states of activity and was familiar with the heat of them and the destruction they could create. She was also familiar with magic, with it’s twisting shapes and sporadic patterns. Ariel’s magic, liquid light spilling from her fingertips, and Ursula’s magic, noxious clouds that tricked the eye and muddled the senses. She thought this looked something like magic. She recognized it in the blazing orange light that danced across the ship and crackled viciously as it went.

Like magic, Ariel noted, fire affected its environment in strange ways. Ways that were not always understandable to its audience. Like magic, it cut through reality and rendered it obsolete in its wake. Like magic, it washed over everything without a care for what it was doing or what got in its way.

The panicked yells of the humans rang clear in the air. Not even the wind could drown them out. Like a song the sound rose and fell and rose and rose as the humans became more afraid. She could just about taste their panic on the air. Ariel felt herself go cold as she bore witness.

So distracted she was that she didn’t notice the rocks until the ship smashed against them.

Horror gripped her body. The crew that hadn’t been tossed into the water on impact were throwing themselves overboard to escape the inferno that now covered most of the ship. Some humans who hadn’t yet succumbed completely to panic cut loose two smaller boats, letting them drop and jumping in after them. The humans closest to the tiny boats hurried to climb in and started hauling the crewmates they could reach out of the water.

She saw Eric helping the others into one of the boats, and breathed a sigh of relief. At least that one was alright. Then there was a panicked bark from the sinking ship, and Eric leaped overboard again.

Ariel choked on her dismay and lunged forward to stop him. By the time she got close, he was already scaling the ship again. All she could do was lurk in the shadows at the edge of the firelight and thrash her tail in agitation.

Eric reemerged a minute later, his beast in his arms, and tossed it to safety. Ariel watched it flounder in the water for a moment before it was hauled up into one of the boats, sopping wet but unharmed.

There. He’d saved his pet. Now surely he could come back down where it was safe?

She looked up again and paled. He was still up there, panic on his face, tugging frantically at his leg like it was stuck somewhere out of sight. She reached for her magic, but before she could do anything the ship exploded.

Eric was flung clear of the ship and splashed into the water far from either of the boats. The other humans were crying out, panicked for his life and reaching for where he’d gone under as if they could grab him from so far away. Ariel dove after him.

Her eyes wouldn’t focus, too dazzled by the light of the fire to see well in the dark. Shapes fell past her in the water, bits of wreckage wrapped in soft light around the edges where the firelight filtered through the water. She couldn’t make out anything beyond that. The rest of her vision was shadow.

Ariel took a breath to calm herself. This was fine. She could still save him. She took another breath, deeper this time, feeling water rush in to replace the air in her lungs. Another, and she felt the entire ocean under her skin. One more breath in to calm herself, then exhaled with a hum, feeling herself start to dissolve at the edges as she melted into the sea. Water wrapped around the falling bits of flotsam and she could feel the disturbance they made as if they were falling through her.

She didn’t do this often. Didn’t like how overwhelming it was to extend herself like this, didn’t like the loss of self she felt whenever it happened. Not to mention it was a massive drain on her power. But, well, desperate times. She didn’t want this one to die.

She let herself drift, let the current and the tide carry her deeper. It was hard to move in this state where she wasn’t quite sure where she ended and the ocean started. If there was any difference between the two at all. Instead, she scanned the water. This trick had taken too much time, she didn’t have much time to find him before he ran out of air.

She drifted past a wooden box. A tangle of rope and shattered wood. Eric’s picture, burnt beyond recognition, the gold of its frame the only thing giving it away. Wreckage and sundry and so many interesting human things but not  _ him. _

Wait. What was that?

She focused her senses down and to the right a bit. For a second, nothing. Then a faint echo of a sound. Thu-thump.

A heartbeat. Ariel snapped herself back together and didn’t let herself pause even though she was reeling from the sudden shock of being just her again. She shot through the water towards Eric without hesitation. His eyes were closed and he hung limp in the water. She caught him under the arms, catching her claws in his clothes to grip him better, and dragged him to the surface. 

— — —

The first mate and the captain were the last to heave themselves back into the lifeboats. Nearly the whole crew had thrown themselves overboard again when they saw Eric go under. None of them had managed to find him. The waves from the storm were still too strong and kept pushing them back towards the rocks, and there was no way any of them would have been able to see anything in the black water.

Grimsby drew a hand over his face. Heavens above, but he was exhausted. The adrenaline was starting to wear off, leaving behind weary shock and disorientation. There was grief in the eyes of the crew, but Grimsby couldn’t even bring himself to feel that much. He was sure he would have a proper meltdown once they were back home, but right now he just… couldn’t.

It was that moment that Max chose to start barking. In the silence of post-tragedy, it felt exceptionally loud, and no less than three of the crew members instantly snapped an order for him to shut up.

Max obeyed, barely. He kept sitting down only to jump up again, quivering with nervous energy and letting out low huffs and whines. All the while he kept staring intently at a point off in the water.

Grimsby frowned and scanned the water. What could have possibly gotten him so riled up—?

He found what Max had seen and froze. Away on the dark water, cast in silver moonlight where the clouds had already started to break, he saw a woman. At first, he thought she was bleeding horribly, before he realized it was just her hair hanging in liquid rivulets across her face, turned the same shiny dark red as fresh blood in the uncertain light. It stained the water around her dark crimson, vivid enough that he could see it even from this distance. She was holding something — a body,  _ Eric’s  _ body — and it took a moment for Grimsby to realize it was a set of vicious claws that made her fingers look so long and harsh, like exposed bone. Her eyes were bright gold, almost glowing, with pupils slitted like a cat’s. And they were looking  _ right at him _ .

He thought he must have been hallucinating. It was closer to dawn than midnight, and he was exhausted and probably traumatized. This was his mind summoning strange images, dreaming while he was awake. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes. When he looked again, the woman was gone.

“Master Grimsby? Your orders, sir?”

The captain’s gruff voice snapped him back to the present moment. Right. “Just… get us back to shore, Captain.”

Grimsby was relieved beyond measure when the captain didn’t argue, though he looked like he wanted to. It was good to know Eric had such loyal men in his employ, that they hesitated to leave him behind even when he must surely be—

Anyway. They were good men. Grimsby appreciated that.

The boats rocked in the water as they were rowed back to shore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Every time I post a chapter I'm straight up overwhelmed by all the wonderful comments you guys leave!!! I never in a million years would have expected the reception this has gotten!! Every kudos and comment just fuels the fire I have for this fic. You guys are incredible! I posted this chapter before my lovely beta B could look at it so if you catch anything screwy it's because I am a fool and this is my hubris.
> 
> Also sorry Johnny Frost and nevermore, no flowershop au. Yet. ;)))
> 
> Also also I keep forgetting to mention this but if you wanna yell about this au with me I'm over on Twitter as @turduckenail *fingerguns*


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A meeting on the beach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Changed a couple tags for this chapter.

It was dawn by the time Ariel found a stretch of dry land she could lay Eric on. It was a tiny bit of white sand, nestled in among rocks and cliffs that were starting to turn yellow as the sun hit them.

Ariel stretched out on the sand beside him, watching his chest slowly rise and fall and carefully counting the time between breaths. They seemed pretty evenly spaced, which she was mostly sure was a good thing. He’d come to for a few seconds while she’d been dragging him to shore, and had spent that time coughing up water and struggling weakly in her arms before he’d passed out again. He hadn’t woken since, and she was starting to worry. Healing wasn’t really her strongest suit, but she’d done her best to patch him up while she waited for another human to wander along who could heal him properly.

“There you are,” a sibilant voice said from behind her.

She cast a look over her shoulder. She’d wondered when Flotsam and Jetsam would come looking for her. She waved her tail vaguely in greeting and turned her attention back to Eric. “About time you decided to catch up. You missed a great party.”

“We saw a ship sink. We were worried it was the one you went swimming after.” She was pretty sure it was Flotsam who said it.

Ariel smiled teasingly. “Since when have you ever worried?”

“Who is the human?”

The question they really meant was ‘ _ what possessed you to go and catch yourself a human, you silly girl?’  _ Ariel chose to ignore the real question. “Eric. He’s a king, apparently.”

Jetsam hummed acknowledgement. “And what are you doing with a human king?”

Eric’s pulse was jumping in his throat and Ariel was struck by the urge to reach out and touch it, run her claws along the tender skin and feel his warm blood rushing just underneath. He looked vulnerable like this, with his head tipped back and his neck exposed. Fragile. It was mesmerizing. It made her want to wrap him up in the safety of her arms and keep him there forever. She gave in to the temptation and ran the pad of a finger lightly up his throat, just barely touching the skin. “I like him.” She idly traced a circle around his adam's apple. “He’s interesting.”

“He’s a human,” said Jetsam, somewhat redundantly.

Ariel nodded. “He is.” She ran the pads of her fingers along the line of his jaw, and just barely kept her claws from grazing the skin. Eric breathed quietly in his sleep, deep and even. “He’s beautiful,” she murmured.

The eels didn’t say anything else, and she heard them slip back under the water after a moment. Probably to tell Ursula she’d run off to look at human things instead of sleeping again. Fine by her. She’d deal with Ursula when she got home.

Later.

For now, she had more important things to take care of. Eric was a uniquely fascinating creature, even if he was asleep. She liked the way the early light lit his face, highlighting his cheekbones and the curve of his brow. Ariel traced the shape of them and smiled when Eric scrunched his nose up when she hit a ticklish spot. Cute.

He was warm, too, though she thought he might be a bit colder than he should be right now. He’d lost more blood than she would have liked before she patched him up. Even still, he felt like a beam of sunlight had been packed into a mortal body. Her skin where they touched felt alive with heat and made the rest of her feel like ice in comparison. She moved a bit closer, just to feel a bit more of that warmth.

She kept up her light touches, exploring the contours of his face, then moved her hand to card through the hair at his temple. It was already mostly dry and starting to curl at the ends. She liked the texture of it, loose and just a bit coarser than her own. It tangled around her fingers as she combed through it, and she took the time to carefully work out the knots as she found them.

Eric sighed, soft and content in sleep, and it made Ariel’s heart thrill. She smiled wider and hummed her happiness, then kept humming, because the happiness in her glowed magic bright and she didn’t feel particularly inclined to hold it in. Besides, it was a simple melody. No particular intent behind it. It wouldn’t do him any harm.

She let her voice blend with the sound of the waves and sang to him.

It was odd, singing to someone without trying to snare them with it. She felt her magic drifting at the corners of his mind, dark with sleep. It felt out the shapes of his dreams and smoothed them into pleasant shapes. It would be so easy to coil that magic tighter around his thoughts, to carve fishhooks deep into his psyche and anchor it to her will. A part of her wanted to.

But looking at him now, sleeping peacefully in the sand and leaning just slightly into her touch, she didn’t think she would. She sang, soft and slow, and let her magic linger at the edge of his dreams and no deeper.

Eric woke up between one verse and the next, a gentle flutter of his eyes followed by a slow blink back to wakefulness. His gaze was distant, like he was still dreaming. It took a long moment for him to focus his eyes, and when he did, they landed on her.

He looked at her with awe in his eyes and Ariel decided right then that she wanted him to look at her like that again.

She felt light spread through her, unrelated to the always present glow of magic. She felt cut loose, set adrift, like maybe she had fallen asleep and was dreaming with him.

She wanted him.

The thought caught her off guard with its intensity. It was the same feeling she had whenever she found a particularly interesting thing to add to her collection, only more intense. Though the emotion was familiar, the sheer scale of the possessive  _ want _ was foreign to her. It was intense, almost overwhelming. A building pressure in her bones and a sudden predatory desperation to her senses. She wanted him.

_ Mine, _ she thought.

She held his gaze and kept singing.

Something barked and Ariel jolted upright, cutting her song short. Max — or at least she was pretty sure it was Eric’s pet — was racing towards them in a flurry of white and grey. The frail man in the fancy coat who had been with Eric on the boat — Grimsby, she was pretty sure — was following close in his wake. They were still a ways off, but approaching fast. Probably time to make herself scarce.

Ariel turned and quickly pulled herself back into the surf, dragging her tail behind her until she could slip under the water. She didn’t go far, just to a rock poking out of the water that was big enough to hide her from sight. She pulled herself onto it and peeked over the top of it, back at the shore.

Grimsby had fallen to his knees beside Eric and was pulling him into a sitting position, while Max alternated between sniffing frantically at his owner and barking ferociously at Ariel. Grimsby spared a furtive glance out over the ocean, but he turned his attention back to Eric before he saw Ariel. He’d seen her last night, as Ariel had been dragging Eric away from the fire. Their eyes had met for a moment - just a moment, no longer - and in that moment Grimsby had paled as if he’d seen his own death before him. Even now, he kept stealing furtive glances at the water, as if Ariel might pop out at any moment and tear him apart with her teeth.

Which, to be fair, wasn’t outside of the realm of possibility. That possessive fire was still fresh in her veins, and it was telling her to go shred the thing that would  _ dare _ to chase her away from what was _ hers _ . It was a strange feeling. She was familiar with possessiveness, she was pretty possessive about her collection. This felt different though. Stronger. More vicious. She hadn’t felt this intensely about something in… maybe ever.

She probably wouldn’t actually attack Grimsby, though. Eric seemed to like him, and she didn’t want to upset him by killing something he liked, as tempting as it might be.

Grimsby wrestled Eric onto his feet, then seemed to give up on getting him to stand on his own and slung Eric’s arm over his shoulder when Eric nearly fell right back down. Eric still had that faraway look on his face, and looked around in vague confusion. He was saying something, but Ariel was too far away to make it out. Grimsby said something in reply and started guiding Eric back up the beach. Eric looked back one more time, then let himself be led away. Max gave a few final warning barks to the sea before bounding after them.

Ariel sat on the rock and watched them go, and kept watching long after they’d gone from her sight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thx again to my beta B for being hecking amazing all the time and to y'all for leaving such great comments I love all of you <3


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ariel has an idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: Next chapter will take a couple weeks, tops, no problem  
> Two months later: fUck
> 
> lol I have no excuse, I was just lazy and found literally any excuse not to write. Including starting another, completely unrelated story about some of my ocs and taking up embroidery. 
> 
> Anyway sorry, I'm back now! I actually split this chapter up because I really really wanted to post something before November and I have uhhh 2 hours to spare, so here's part 1, part 2 will be coming at you sOONER THAN TWO MONTHS FROM NOW I SWEAR
> 
> ALSO THANK YOU B FOR TELLING ME THAT MY FIRST ATTEMPT AT THIS CHAPTER SUCKED, IT WAS INDEED VERY BAD. YOU'RE 10% OF THE REASON THIS IS LATE, BUT ALSO THE REASON PEOPLE ACTUALLY GET TO READ SOMETHING THAT'S GOOD.

“I’ll swim up to the castle, then— Flotsam and Jetsam, you two can splash around to get his attention— No, wait! I’ll sing to get his attention! Yeah, he’ll definitely like that! I’ll sing something nice and get him to come down to the shore.” Ariel swam joyful circles around her grotto, gesturing excitedly as she spoke.

“And then I’ll— Oh! I’ll bring him a gift!” she said as she started pulling glittering things off of shelves. “This ring, and maybe this crown… Ooh, this necklace! And this whatchamacallit— Guys, come here, I’m gonna need your help to carry all this.”

The eels chuckled, not unkindly. “Child, what are you doing?”

“I want to bring Eric something nice so he’ll want to live here with me.”

“The human?” said Flotsam.

“We didn’t realize he could breathe underwater,” finished Jetsam.

Ariel paused, arms laden down with gold and jewels and various shiny things. Her smile had slipped. “Oh. Right.” She drummed her fingers against the shelf where they rested. “I forgot about that.”

Flotsam drifted closer to curl around her shoulders, and Jetsam looped around her arm. “We are glad you like the human, truly,” said Flotsam

“Truly,” echoed Jetsam.

“But do you really think this is a good idea, child?”

Ariel frowned, fiddling with a necklace tangled in her fingers. “What do you mean? He’s mine, isn’t he? So he should be near me.”

Jetsam hummed. “A fish may fall in love with a bird—”

“—but where will they build their nest?”

“The bird can make a nest by the sea then, in the sand,” said Ariel.

“And never again nest high in the trees where it belongs?” said Flotsam.

Ariel growled quietly. “Then the fish can live in a cove near the bird’s nest.”

Jetsam curled around her back. “And be trapped there forever, away from the sea?”

Flotsam looped around her other shoulder. “Hardly a life worth living.”

Ariel suddenly threw the trinkets against the wall with a violent burst of magic. Flotsam and Jetsam recoiled but didn’t go far, even as Ariel spun around to face them with teeth bared and the sun burning in her eyes. “Where then?!” she roared, and the magic in her voice made the walls shake. “If the bird can’t stay by the sea and the fish can’t stay by the land then where can they be together? He’s mine, isn’t he? I saved him! He’s mine so he should be near me!”

Flotsam and Jetsam exchanged nervous glances, like maybe they hadn’t expected this level of emotion from their little witch girl. “Hush, child, we didn’t mean to upset you,” said Jetsam.

“We’re just worried. We don’t want you to be unhappy,” said Flotsam.

“But he makes me happy—”

“And we fear your pursuit of this human will only end in heartbreak for you,” continued Flotsam as if he hadn’t been interrupted.

“Yes,” Jetsam agreed. “After all, he can’t survive in the ocean—”

“And you don’t have legs to follow him to shore,” finished Flotsam.

Ariel… frowned again. Not angry this time. Frustrated, maybe, but mostly thoughtful. Something about what Flotsam had said sparked something in her mind. The light faded from her eyes and she thought.

_ Legs to follow him to shore… _

She looked at all her trinkets where she had thrown them, where they lay glittering in the sand. Her eyes caught on one of her human paintings shoved in a corner. A woman with sunlight on hair and an absent, dreamy look on her face. Draped in her own hair, and rising from the sea.

Ariel looked down at herself, at her fins. Now there was a thought.

She darted for the mouth of the cave before the thought had even finished forming, leaving the eels calling after her in concern. Yes, yes now  _ that _ was an idea.

She would go to Ursula. She would go to Ursula and ask her for a new lesson. Shape-changing magic was familiar to her. The basics at least. But she didn’t have the kind of control she would need to do something this specific. This precise and prolonged. Ursula would know how, though. Ursula would be able to teach her what she needed, and then she could—

Legs. She would have legs. She would shape them herself, strong and perfect and able to follow her human onto dry land. And not just him, every human alive. Every strange, perfect, human thing would be right there at her fingertips. Her grotto with all the wonders it contained would look like a drop in comparison to what she could have on land. 

Ariel would go to Eric. To her human,  _ her _ human, and he would never be separated from her again.

But first, she needed legs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hmu on twitter @turduckenail to tell me how mad you are that this took two hecking months to update lol


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ursula appears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A slightly longer chapter to make up for the last one taking five million years and then just being like 500 words :')) The next chapter won't take another 2 months I swear XD  
> This chapter puts us over 10k which is, uh, more than I've written on any one thing in a while so that's cool?? Give yourselves a pat on the back cause I wouldn't have written this much if it weren't for your encouragement!!   
> Thanks for sticking with me for this long, I know I say this like every chapter but you have no clue how much you guys and your support and encouraging comments mean to me. You're all so amazing and I love all of you <3

Ursula’s lair was huge. It wasn’t just the monstrous carcass, a specimen of a long-extinct species held together by spells of preservation and strength. It was a network of caves and tunnels leading down, down through the dead volcano it rested on. Some were worn away by time and currents, others were gouged out by magma, ages ago when it was still active. Some Ursula had carved herself, cut out of the stone with the magic and physical strength of a master witch. Back when Ursula had been at her full power.

Ursula had told Ariel some variation of the story dozens of times. Back then she had needed all of those caverns, just to contain her gardens and herself. Now, most of those caverns were empty. Ursula’s garden could be contained just in the throat of the beast, and the space inside the ribcage was enough room for her to live. The uppermost caverns had been relegated to storage, and Ariel had never seen the deeper ones at all.

It wasn’t quite home. Home was her grotto with all its trinkets. But it was Ursula’s home, which meant it came close. It was where she had been brought up, where she had lived until she was old enough to find her own lair, close-by though it was. And it still felt like home to her in some senses.

She darted into the beast’s maw, past teeth as long as her arm, still sharp as obsidian despite eons of water currents wearing at them. They, too, carried the back-of-the-mouth bitter taste of Ursula’s magic. Ariel paid no mind to the garden as she passed. The shrivelled polyps with their wide, strange eyes that quivered and cowered as she passed weren’t really of any concern to her, just as her collection was of no concern to Ursula. ‘Of no concern’ in this case meaning ‘strictly off limits’. Ursula tolerated Ariel’s presence near her garden at all because she liked to show it off and because Ariel occasionally brought back new additions for it.

The purple-scaled mermaid from yesterday came to mind. Ariel did a quick count of the tiny shivering shapes and came up with the same number she had last time she had passed through. Ursula hadn’t collected her price from that one yet then.

“Well well, look who the catfish dragged in!” called a voice from further in. “Are you going to come in or are you going to linger in the doorway all day like some common mer?”

Ariel smiled and entered the lair proper. “Good morning, Ursula.”

Ursula sighed and rolled her eyes from her seat at her vanity. “Good morning, Ariel sweetie. I see living in a cave has done  _ wonders _ for your manners.”

“I was just admiring your garden. It looks splendid, as always.”

Ursula’s lips stretched wide in a smile that showed her teeth, annoyance forgotten as Ariel knew it would be. “Of course it does! Now put those things away, child,” she said, meeting Ariel’s eyes in the mirror and waving her hand vaguely. “You look like a wild animal.”

Ariel blinked and looked at herself. Ah. Right. She’d forgotten she still had her claws out. She let her magic wash over her, smoothing out the sharp edges and bringing her appearance closer to a regular mer’s. She wiggled her fingers, getting reacquainted with how they felt. Soft and blunt. Nonthreatening. She ran her tongue over her newly dull teeth and frowned. They were alright like this, she guessed, but she always missed her fangs after she changed back. Like this, she felt as if she’d been bumped back down to the bottom of the food chain, and it annoyed her to no end.

Still, leaving them out was rude, so Ariel didn’t voice her discontent.

“Now are you just going to float there all day or did you actually have a reason for bothering me?” Ursula said, drawing a careful point at the corner of her eye.

Ariel squared her shoulders. Here goes nothing. “I need you to teach me how to give myself legs.”

Ursula snorted. Ariel didn’t see what was so funny.

“ _Legs_?” Ursula laughed, “What reason could you _possibly_ have for wanting _legs_? Of all things?”

“I… I met a human,” Ariel said, drawing in on herself. That hadn’t been the response she had been hoping for. “I want legs so I can go be with him.”

“Oh, be serious. Why on  _ Earth _ would you want to go live on  _ dry land _ with a  _ human?” _ Ursula sneered with more derision than was really necessary.

Ariel frowned, her mouth drawn in an angry line. “Because he’s  _ mine.” _

Ursula stopped fussing with her makeup and turned to regard her, eyebrows arched in surprise and curiosity. Her smile was suddenly intensely interested in a way it hadn’t been a moment before. “Is he, now?”

“Yes,” said Ariel, leaving no room for argument. He was hers now, and so she had to have him nearby, where she could guard him. That was just fact.

Ursula must have seen something in her expression, because she laughed in the next moment, loud and pleased. “Well, why didn’t you say so?” She rose from her vanity with a flourish of tentacles and shooed Ariel closer to Ursula’s cauldron. Ursula cast a quick spell over the cauldron, preparing it for use, while Ariel flitted about to clear space for Ursula to work. It was a familiar pattern, one she fell into easily.

She magicked away stray sand and detritus that had been deposited on the floor by shifting water, while Ursula finished her spell. The liquid in her cauldron shimmered and turned a blank, neutral white.

“Now the legs I understand, but why would you ask me to  _ teach  _ you how to get those when we could just make a deal and have you in your precious human’s arms in an hour?”

“‘One should never make a deal with a witch,’” Ariel recited with a grin, “‘for to deal with a witch is to deal with the devil.’”

Ursula threw her head back and laughed. “Using my own lessons against me! Such betrayal! You wound me deeply, my child,” she exclaimed dramatically, but she looked more pleasantly surprised than anything. It made Ariel straighten up with pride.

“I still don’t know what the devil is, though,” Ariel admitted.

Ursula waved her hand dismissively as she turned to rummage through her shelves of potion ingredients. “Oh come now. You have a brain, isn’t it obvious?” Ursula apparently found whatever she was looking for and tossed it - bottle and all - into her cauldron, making the liquid bubble purple. “That’s us.”

Ariel frowned. “The devil and witches are the same thing?”

“Well that’s what the humans would have you think at least,” she said as she tossed in another bottle. The potion swirled green. “I can’t tell you how many times a human caught sight of me and started screaming bloody murder because he thought I was a demon.”

“Demon?”

Ursula waved her hand dismissively. “Demon, devil, same thing. The point is,” here she whirled around to face Ariel, “we are creatures of our word, you and I. We never leave our debts unpaid, and we never allow someone else to leave their debts to us unpaid, even if forking up payment means they give up everything.”

“Your garden.”

“Exactly,” she said with a smile. “Mer call people like that witches. Humans call them devils and demons. Doesn’t matter what you call us, we’ll still take their souls if they offer them to us.” she winked. “That’s what you’re after, isn’t it? His soul?”

Ariel blinked, confused. “I want him, I don’t particularly care about his soul.”

Ursula hummed in faux thoughtfulness and tossed something still wriggling into the potion. “But you want him to belong to you, don’t you? Wholly and completely?”

“I— yes. I do want that,” she said.

“So take his soul. Easiest way to make that happen.” She tossed a bundle of anemones into the cauldron with a sense of finality. “Now come closer, and I’ll show you what to do.”


End file.
